Discontent and Animal Control

I wish every Seattle entry was a good news “hey isn’t Seattle great” post, but sometimes they aren’t. This is one of those times.

A few weeks ago, a pair of pitbulls got loose near my house in the Central district. They attacked and seriously injured three people, including a senior citizen, and a 6 year-old child. The child in particular was very badly hurt.

But for some reason neither the Seattle Police nor Animal Control seem to be taking any appropriate action. As a blockwatch captain, I’ve dealt with Seattle Animal Control in the past, and I can’t remember any situation where they took action on a complaint (or even gave polite phone service for that matter). These same dogs attempted to attack my neighbor last spring, and I know for a fact that there was never any follow up on the complaint. I’ve heard the same story on my neighborhood mailing list and from other blockwatch groups in the area.

I’ve dealt with many good and helpful people working for the City of Seattle and Seattle PD. I have nothing but respect for those people who do their best to serve their city. But I can’t say the same for Animal Control. People in this neighborhood have been calling City Councilors, journalists, and the Mayor’s Office to try and get some satisfaction, so I thought I’d do my bit to publicize the problem.

Has anyone had a positive experience with Animal Control? Does anyone have some advice for dealing with dangerous animals in the neighborhood?

4 Comments so far

Call Animal Control and threaten to kill the dogs if they don’t come out. At the risk of sounding facetious, I bet Animal Control and the SPD run their asses out to the CD the second you threaten animal harm.

Well, we haven’t had much trouble with the poodles in the neighborhood.

Seriously, I have a friend with a pitbull cross that’s very sweet. But these dogs are reportedly neglected, and as a result. Not very sweet. But I guess you already knew that, seeing as how they mauled three people.

Sam—
The dogs are not only neglected, they have been trained to fight. If you walk by the house on weekends, you can hear the whole thing going on. At other times, you can look over the fence yourself and see the dogs straining at their leashes (if they have them on). And yes, the dogs are pittbulls. Not poodles, not dobermans, but pittbulls.